Since writing “Woodstock” in a hotel room in New York City, Joni Mitchell’s anti-culture song has been treated several times in the last 50 years, most notably with the electrifying version of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on Déjà Vu.
Now a folk version of Bonnie Raitt has been discovered, recorded at a performance on March 27, 1971 at the Jabberwocky Club of Syracuse University. Raitt was just 21 and eight months away from her drop with her self-titled debut. Unlike many covers of Mitchell’s spiritual song, Raitt’s is dismissive and acoustic, using only her voice to channel the muddy festival on Max Yasgur’s farm. Her register is similar to Mitchells’, staring through the octaves with each line: “And I dreamed I saw the bombers / Rifles flown in the air / And they were in butterflies / Above our nation.”
Before closing in 1985, the Jabberwocky Club hosted James Brown, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Roger McGuinn, and more. The campus’ FM radio station, WAER, would broadcast the live performances in New York. Raitt’s set is bootlegged, but is very rare.
While in conversation with Brandi Carlile for Rolling stoneThe Package Musicians on Musicians last year discussed Raitt Mitchell and the songwriter’s return to the public eye. “I don’t see her very much,” she said. ‘We had some classic hangs at my house in the Seventies, once with Jackson [Browne] and Graham [Nash]. It’s just a thrill for me to be back in a musical setting with her. ”
